In the mortar, the scent of the sea turns into a chicken stew
Grind dried shrimp, toasted peanuts and onion together, and the dry scent of the sea meets the sweetness of the nuts. Fry that paste slowly in red dendê oil (azeite de dendê), coat the chicken with it, and you have the starting point of xinxim de galinha. This isn't a dish that changes direction with curry powder or a pile of spices. Seafood savoriness, the body of nuts and the aroma of the oil all come together in one pot.
Xinxim de galinha is a chicken stew from the state of Bahia in northeastern Brazil. The Portuguese word galinha means chicken. What trips people up outside Brazil is less the chicken than three questions: how far to rehydrate the dried shrimp, when to add the dendê oil, and how thick to leave the sauce.
This recipe is a home version for four, using boneless or bone-in chicken thighs. It keeps the idea of the local method, in which a whole chicken is jointed, but narrows the imported ingredients to three and shows you how to judge doneness for bone-in and boneless meat alike. You grind the dried shrimp and nuts into a coarse paste in a mortar, then let the gentle simmer carry the sauce, which is spooned over white rice or farofa.
To protect the heart of the dish, prioritize red dendê oil and dried shrimp. Peanuts and cashews give the sauce its body, and if you have no cashews you can simply use more peanuts. But if you replace all of the dendê oil with a neutral oil, you get a good nutty chicken stew that has lost the color and aroma that make it xinxim.
The name and the table: reading the flavors layered in Bahia
Describing xinxim only as "spicy Brazilian chicken" drops the structure of the dish. Bahian cooking layers several food cultures, including African, Indigenous and Portuguese, and a University of Kansas resource introducing Salvador explains that this blending shows up in food, religion, music and more. The color of dendê oil, the saltiness of dried small shrimp and the technique of thickening the sauce with crushed nuts build the dish on an axis that has nothing to do with heat.
Written sources vary in their recipes, too. The English version from Instituto Brasil a Gosto uses a whole chicken, lime, garlic, onion, desalted dried shrimp, toasted peanuts, dendê oil and coriander, and cooks the chicken after making a paste of onion, shrimp and peanuts. An English-language home recipe, on the other hand, combines the chicken with broth and chili, adds the dendê oil at the end, and serves it with white rice and farofa. Even under the same name, the pot changes depending on whether you use a lot of oil at the start or keep it as a finishing aroma.
A recipe collected in an appendix to a Federal University of Bahia study of food culture lists chicken, dried shrimp, onion, garlic, toasted peanuts, egusi (pumpkin or watermelon seeds), dendê oil and cilantro. It also describes simmering the chicken gently into a thick sauce and eating it with white rice, farofa or cassava flour. This recipe doesn't present any of these as the one right answer; it is reworked into quantities that are easy to reproduce in a kitchen cooking for four.
Read the religious context separately from the home version as well. Brasil a Gosto explains that in Candomblé rituals the dish is tied to Oxum, and that a special form made for her uses eggs. That doesn't mean eggs go into every household pot. Respecting the ritual dish, the family table and the cook who rebuilds a memory in a modern kitchen as separate settings keeps Bahian food culture from being flattened.
Local sources include versions that use a whole chicken, versions with bone-in pieces, and versions that add cashews or coconut milk. For four servings here, the dried shrimp's saltiness is toned down and the dendê oil is used in two stages. That is a home version that favors easy shopping and an easy-to-handle pot. You keep the core of the dish, and it's clear where it was changed.
The backbone of the flavor: oil, dried shrimp and nuts
The xinxim sauce doesn't come together just by making the ingredients fine. You pass the dried shrimp through water to adjust the saltiness, warm the nuts lightly, and crush them together with onion. Fry those three in dendê oil, and the shrimp aroma moves into the oil while the nut particles hold the cooking liquid.
Dendê oil isn't just an oil that adds color. The red-orange oil spreads across the pot and ties the surface of the chicken and the paste together with one aroma. If a strongly scented product worries you, it keeps the character of the dish better to use a neutral oil for part of the amount and keep the last 15 ml as dendê than to replace all of it from the start.
Dried shrimp vary a great deal in saltiness and dryness from product to product. Don't add all the soaking liquid; rinse the shrimp, soak them briefly, squeeze out the water, then use them. If saltiness dominates when you taste, change the water once more. Soaking them so long that the smell disappears completely also weakens the sea flavor of the paste, so use 10 minutes as the baseline.
The nuts don't need to become a smooth cream. A coarse paste with particles about 2–3 mm leaves small toasty bits in the sauce, and when you spoon it over rice you can tell how thick it is. A food processor works too, but the key is not to run it so long that it turns liquid.
Ingredients (serves 4)
The amounts below are for bone-in chicken thighs. If you make it with boneless meat, use 800 g of thigh, shorten the simmer by 5 minutes, and check that the center is cooked through. Dried shrimp, nuts and dendê oil all hit hard at once, making the salt and aroma sharp, so keep to the amounts and adjust at the end.
This recipe contains chicken, shrimp, peanuts and cashews. If you have a shellfish or nut allergy, simply swapping in another ingredient changes not only the flavor but also the safety judgment, so check ingredient labels and whether cookware is shared. Cook the chicken until the center reaches 74°C (165°F). Wash the cutting board and bowls that touched raw chicken before you prepare the sides.
Where to find the key ingredients
Rather than adding rare ingredients you'll use only once, start with the ones that define xinxim and can be used in other dishes. Dendê oil also works in palm-oil stews such as moambe and muamba, and dried shrimp also flavor vatapá and moqueca.
If you buy only one thing for this dish, buy the dendê oil. Look for "red palm oil" or "dendê" on the label, and check the volume and ingredients. Latin American, African and Brazilian grocers and online shops usually stock it. Before you buy, consider whether you have other dishes that will use up a strongly scented oil.
Dried shrimp look alike but differ in saltiness and size. Check the name, net weight, ingredients and salt content on the label, and choose ones where the treatment of heads and shells is clear, so you can plan the prep. Powdered types shorten the mortar time, but if you want to keep the aroma of whole pieces, choose small dried shrimp.
Settle on your tools first
The steps run in this order: seasoning, preparing dried shrimp and nuts, making the paste, frying, simmering and finishing. If you start the chicken simmering and then try to make the paste, the bottom of the pot scorches easily. Cut the ingredients first, squeeze out the dried shrimp, measure the broth, and only then light the fire.
If you want the paste's texture to be consistent, use a heavy tool such as a granite mortar. There is no need to buy one for a single dish; it suits people who repeatedly crush whole curry spices, salsa or aromatics. Check whether the mortar is granite or comes as a set with a pestle, and consider storage space and how easy it is to wash.
FoodSafety.gov gives 165°F (74°C) as the safe minimum internal temperature for all cuts of poultry. Insert a thermometer into the thick part near the bone, without touching the bone. If you don't have a thermometer, make sure the center is not raw: cut into a thick part and check for pink or clear juices.
How the heat changes the finished xinxim
If you stop by the clock alone, the chicken may be cooked but the sauce can be thin, the oil can separate, or only the saltiness of the dried shrimp may remain. At the end, adjust by the sound of the pot and the thickness.
Move only the unburnt part to another pot, add 30 ml of unsalted broth, and resume over low heat. Scraping up the black burnt bits with a wooden spoon spreads bitterness through everything, so the key is not to try to rescue the bottom of the pot. If the whole paste smells burnt, take out the chicken and start the paste again with 50 g of fresh onion and 5 ml of oil, which is more reliable than diluting the bitterness.
Push the chicken to the side, take off the lid and reduce over low heat for 3–5 minutes. High heat scorches only the nuts on the surface, so keep a heat at which the bubbles don't reach the middle of the pot in big bursts. If a wooden spoon drawn along the bottom leaves a track for 2 seconds, the sauce is thick enough not to run off the rice.
First eat one piece of dried shrimp to see whether the salt comes from the paste or from the broth. Add 50 ml of unsalted water or broth to the pot, simmer 3 minutes on low, and taste again. If the dilution leaves the sauce loose, take off the lid and reduce for just 2 minutes. Don't use the trick of absorbing the salt with a potato.
Put only half of the chili in the paste and chop the rest finely to serve at the table. The whole pot doesn't become spicy, so people who add white rice and people who want to add acidity or heat can eat from the same pot. Removing the seeds lowers the heat, but it doesn't remove the aroma.
Floating oil is a feature of a stew made with dendê oil, but if it has separated completely from the sauce, the heat may have been too high. Turn off the heat, add 30 ml of unsalted broth and gently swirl the pot. Once the liquid and paste come back together, warm it on low heat for just 1 minute. There is no need to force an emulsion by whisking.
In a home kitchen, how far to follow the local version
When you cook this away from Bahia, think first about what changes, not only about whether you can find an ingredient. Substitutes are tools for making the dish work, and they don't guarantee the same flavor as the local ingredient.
| Local element | Practical line | What changes and how to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Dendê oil | Red palm oil. If unavailable, 15 ml rice bran oil + 30 ml olive oil | Color, aroma and mouthfeel change. A full substitute moves it toward a nutty chicken stew |
| Dried shrimp | Small dried shrimp, or unsalted sakura shrimp | Sakura shrimp have a lighter aroma and the salt varies by product. Don't halve the amount; taste and adjust the soaking water |
| Peanuts and cashews | 90 g peanuts, or 70 g peanuts + 30 g cashews | Peanuts alone give a stronger toasty note, and cashews add a sweet body |
| Malagueta-type chili | Fresh chili, dried red chili, sliced red chili | The difference is more in aroma than heat. Start with half in the pot and serve the rest on the side |
| A whole chicken | 900 g bone-in chicken thighs | Bone-in gives the liquid body. For boneless, drop to 800 g and shorten the simmer |
| Egusi (pumpkin or watermelon seeds) | 25 g pumpkin seeds | Brings the texture closer to the grains in the Bahian sources. Replaces 25 g of the peanuts |
Why not replace all the dendê oil
If you can't use dendê oil for some reason, it's fine to cook the chicken in rice bran or olive oil alone. But that pot becomes a dish with the aroma of xinxim made from a different oil. The first time, you don't need to buy the full 45 ml. This recipe's split, 30 ml for frying and 15 ml for finishing, is a less wasteful way to check the change in color and aroma.
When replacing dried shrimp with sakura shrimp
Sakura shrimp are easy to find, but they are weaker in the saltiness and the fermented, strong aroma of dried shrimp. Rather than soaking in water for a long time, rinse the surface lightly, soak for only 5 minutes, squeeze out the water and crush with the nuts. If it tastes short of salt, add 0.5 g of salt at a time in the later part of the simmer. Fish sauce as a substitute increases liquid saltiness and loses the particle texture of the paste, so it isn't the first choice for this recipe.
Use coconut milk as "another way to approach it"
Some other Bahian recipes layer coconut milk over nuts, dried shrimp and dendê oil. If you add it, reduce the broth to 150 ml and add 100 ml of coconut milk at the end of the simmer, warming for 5 minutes. The sauce becomes mellower, but the saltiness of the dried shrimp and the aroma of the dendê oil are rounded off, so the result is different from this basic version. It suits people who want less heat or want plenty of sauce over white rice.
Buy a mortar, or make do with kitchen tools
A mortar lets you stop while watching the particles in the paste, so it suits people who want to keep the aroma of dried shrimp and nuts. Without one, you can put the nuts in a thick freezer bag and crush them with a rolling pin, and chop the onion and dried shrimp finely with a knife. For a single dish, choosing not to buy one is reasonable. If you make curry, salsa or aromatics several times a month, a heavy mortar helps with time and with adjusting the particle size.
Six ways to serve, adjusting the heat and richness to your table
Xinxim isn't a dish that is finished in the pot alone. With a staple to take on the richness and saltiness of the sauce, the strength of the dried shrimp and dendê oil settles down. Start with white rice and farofa, and change the rest to suit your household.
1. The basic line, without heat
Leave the chili out of the pot and serve cilantro and lime on the side. The aroma of dried shrimp and dendê oil remains, so the frame of the dish comes across even to people who don't like heat. If only the adults want to add heat, put chopped red chili on a separate plate.
2. Soften it with coconut milk
As in the previous section, reduce the broth and add 100 ml of coconut milk at the end. Take the chicken out before warming the sauce, stir over low heat so it doesn't separate, return the chicken and rest 5 minutes. Serve the acidity with lime at the table, which keeps the coconut's roundness.
3. Add shrimp for a stronger sea aroma
If you use 150 g of raw shrimp, peel them and remove the veins, and add them in the last 5 minutes. If you add raw shrimp without cutting back the dried shrimp, the saltiness stays the same while the liquid tends to thin, so if the sauce is loose, reduce it for 2 minutes before adding the raw shrimp. At a table with someone who has a shellfish allergy, avoid this, including the approach of serving a portion separately and cooking another pot.
4. Add grain with egusi or pumpkin seeds
Lightly toast 25 g of pumpkin seeds, replace 25 g of the peanuts with them and crush. The aroma is greener than peanuts, and the particles in the sauce feel a little larger. Choose this when you want to move toward ingredients seen in Bahian sources, but pumpkin seeds you buy elsewhere are not necessarily the same as the local seeds, so treat it as a substitute.
5. Use a whole chicken for bone savoriness
To scale up to 6–8 servings, use a whole chicken jointed at the joints. Because the meat varies in thickness, take out the thin parts of the breast first and return the thighs and wings to the liquid, which makes them less likely to turn tough. Don't add all the broth at the start; begin with enough that a third of the chicken sits in it and add from there.
6. Use farofa for textural contrast
Farofa, cassava flour toasted in oil, is a dry base that scoops up the thick sauce. Compared with eating with white rice alone, it makes the thickness of the sauce and the grains of dried shrimp easier to notice. Some store-bought farofa is seasoned, so don't keep raising the salt on the xinxim side; judge the overall saltiness after serving them together.
Storage and FAQ
Q. Can I make it ahead?
Cool the chicken and sauce slightly, portion them into shallow storage containers and refrigerate. Keep white rice and farofa separate and warm only what you'll eat, which makes it easier to keep the sauce's thickness. Reheat in a pot over low heat and check that the center is hot. FoodSafety.gov gives 74°C as the standard for poultry and leftovers, so if you have a thermometer, measure the center. Don't eat anything that has sat at room temperature for a long time, or anything that smells or looks off.
Q. I really can't find dendê oil
You can make it with 15 ml rice bran oil and 30 ml olive oil, but the color and aroma will be milder. Even then, if you crush and use the dried shrimp, peanuts and cilantro, the nutty, sea flavor stays and it doesn't become a plain tomato stew. If you plan to make it again later, it's worth looking for the oil first. If you'd never use up a jar of dendê oil, don't force yourself to buy it, and understand the difference with the substitute line.
Q. The dried shrimp smell is too strong
Adjust with rinsing and the 10-minute soak, and if it's still strong, reduce to 20 g. But reducing the dried shrimp weakens not just the saltiness but also the savoriness and aroma of the sauce. Don't try to fill the gap completely with more nuts; serve white rice, farofa and lime to spread the intensity in your mouth.
Q. Can I replace the cashews with peanuts?
You can replace them with 90 g of peanuts. The toasty note comes forward and the sweet, soft body is reduced. Using only cashews makes the aroma monotonous, so leaving a little peanut gives the sauce more depth. Both can trigger nut allergies, so if safety is the priority, don't use them.
Q. Can I use chicken breast instead of thighs?
You can, but breast tends to dry out if simmered too long. Leave it in large pieces rather than bite-sized, start the low-heat time after the liquid boils at 20 minutes, and stop at a center temperature of 74°C. Bone-in thighs take longer, but the liquid and meat come together, so they suit a first plate.
Q. The sauce was firm the next day
When cold, the nuts and chicken fat set the sauce. Add 30–50 ml of water or unsalted broth to the pot and warm slowly over low heat to loosen it. Boiling over high heat from the start tends to separate the oil, so keep the heat at a level where a wooden spoon can trace the bottom.
Dishes to cook alongside
To widen the Bahian table a little, line up dishes in which a rich sauce is taken up by a staple, and the differences become clear.
- Moqueca baiana: compare the layering of seafood, coconut milk and dendê oil
- Vatapá: a different way of building a paste from dried shrimp and nuts
- Acarajé: see how Bahia's bean dish uses dendê oil
- Farofa: add the texture of cassava flour to take up a rich stew
- Feijoada: compare a Brazilian stew served with a staple
Sources
- Instituto Brasil a Gosto, "Xinxim": checked for the recipe using a whole chicken, dried shrimp, peanuts and dendê oil, the Candomblé context and home adaptations (accessed and checked 8 September 2026)
- Amigo Foods, "Xinxim de Galinha Recipe: Traditional Brazilian Chicken Stew": checked for ingredients of the Bahian chicken stew, the dried shrimp and peanut paste, broth, dendê oil, and serving with white rice and farofa (accessed and checked 8 September 2026)
- FoodSafety.gov, "Cook to a Safe Minimum Internal Temperature": checked for the safe minimum internal temperature of 74°C for poultry and leftovers (accessed and checked 8 September 2026)
- University of New Mexico Digital Repository, "A Tropical Flour: Manioc in the Afro-Brazilian World, 1500–1800": checked for an overview of research on cassava moving through the African and Portuguese world and the redefinition of food culture (accessed and checked 8 September 2026)
- University of Kansas, "Race, History & Health in Brazil": checked for the explanation of Afro-descendant culture in Salvador and Bahia and the blending of cultures including food (accessed and checked 8 September 2026)
- Universidade Federal da Bahia, "Dendê: Identidade Cultural e Gastronômica da África à Bahia": checked for dendê oil in Bahian food culture, the ingredients and gentle cooking of xinxim, and eating it with rice and farofa (accessed and checked 8 September 2026)
- Receitas Globo, "Xinxim de galinha da Carmem Virginia": checked for another Bahian version using cashews, peanuts, dried shrimp and coconut milk, and its method (accessed and checked 8 September 2026)
